Speech Therapy

The ability to communicate is one of the most important gifts we possess as human beings. Any impairment in this area can affect all aspects of our lives, first to work, to home life, to play. Speech Language Pathologists evaluate and diagnose speech, language, cognitive communication, and swallowing disorders. Our highly skilled staff has experience with pediatrics as well as adults young and old, for both communication and swallowing disorders.

ADULT SPEECH:

Adults may experience speech and language difficulties for a variety of reasons. Information about specific types of speech and language differences and disorders is included below.

What is apraxia of speech?

Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder. The messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted, and the person cannot move his or her lips or tongue to the right place to say sounds correctly, even though the muscles are not weak. The severity of apraxia depends on the nature of the brain damage

What is dysarthria?

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder. It results from impaired movement of the muscles used for speech production, including the lips, tongue, vocal folds, and/or diaphragm. The type and severity of dysarthria depend on which area of the nervous system is affected.

What is stuttering?

Stuttering affects the fluency of speech. It begins during childhood and, in some cases, lasts throughout life. The disorder is characterized by disruptions in the production of speech sounds, also called “disfluencies.” Most people produce brief disfluencies from time to time. For instance, some words are repeated and others are preceded by “um” or “uh.” Disfluencies are not necessarily a problem; however, they can impede communication when a person produces too many of them.

In most cases, stuttering has an impact on at least some daily activities. The specific activities that a person finds challenging to perform vary across individuals. For some people, communication difficulties only happen during specific activities, for example, talking on the telephone or talking before large groups. For most others, however, communication difficulties occur across a number of activities at home, school, or work. Some people may limit their participation in certain activities. Such “participation restrictions” often occur because the person is concerned about how others might react to disfluent speech. Other people may try to hide their disfluent speech from others by rearranging the words in their sentence (circumlocution), pretending to forget what they wanted to say, or declining to speak. Other people may find that they are excluded from participating in certain activities because of stuttering. Clearly, the impact of stuttering on daily life can be affected by how the person and others react to the disorder.

What is aphasia?

Aphasia is a communication disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language (typically in the left half of the brain). Individuals who experience damage to the right side of the brain may have additional difficulties beyond speech and language issues. Aphasia may causes difficulties in speaking, listening, reading, and writing, but does not affect intelligence. Individuals with aphasia may also have other problems, such as dysarthria, apraxia, or swallowing problems.

Medical Conditions

PEDIATRIC SPEECH:

We specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of toddlers, preschool, elementary, middle school and high school children with speech, language, articulation and social/pragmatic delays and disorders. Each child will receive individual treatment plans to meet their needs and goals.

We offer a pediatric program throughout the year, should your child not qualify for speech therapy services through the school system.

What We Treat

Receptive Language Delays

Expressive Language Delays

Articulation & Phonological Disorders

Stuttering

Voice Problems

Feeding Deficits

Executive Functioning

Social & Pragmatic Impairments

Augmentative Communication

Austism Spectrum Disorder

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Listening Therapy

Sensory Integration

Fine & Gross Motor Skills

Speech Therapy is often covered fully by your health insurance, but call us to check about your particular coverage.